RTQ - Read The Question

Everyone was staring. Why wouldn’t they be? After all she was a newbie. Lydia Wade was a sixteen year old girl who had just moved to the small town of Hillign with her parents and her older brothers. She was quite small in height, probably 5ft 3”. She had luxurious long, brown, wavy hair which was tied up in a bun with a few locks of curls clipped to the side. She wasn’t your average skinny teenager, she had curves to her and a brilliant shape. She was wondering through the canteen looking like a lost child. It was break time so nearly all of the 5th years were in the canteen. She didn’t know who to sit with or who to talk to. Looking around the room she could see numerous groups of people, all separated by one or two seats. The different groups varied in size from two people to fourteen. Lydia could make out a lot of the groups because it was very similar to her old school. She was looking around to see where she fitted in. There. A little girl, probably in 2nd year, reading a book on her own. Lydia gave a smile, thinking of the adventures she used to have with Jane Austen or John Steinbeck. She was just about to sit down on an empty table when a girl called her over. The girl belonged to the biggest group; she was clearly the ‘leader’ of the pack. She had long hair, which you could easily see were hair extensions, that had been straightened far too much and it was a horrible reddish brown. Her make-up was awful, even from a distance you could tell she was wearing far too much. She had stupidly covered herself in a fake tan. A bad mistake. Overall she looked like an Orange with hair and make-up. Lydia had learned from her old school that these type of girls were bitches. She pretended not to have heard her but before she knew it two girls had her by the arms and were dragging her to the table. They plonked her down on the seat next to the ‘leader’. “You must be Lydia. I’m Jade. We just thought we’d say hi and tell you, really the let’s just say laws of the playground”, she stuck her hand out in front of Lydia. Great false nails, Lydia’s worst nightmare. “What’s wrong? My hand is not diseased or anything” Lydia knew that, but she just hated the feel of false nails. She had to think of something quick, something Jade would believe. She thought of something quickly, which was unusual for Lydia, she just hoped it would work. “Did you not hear? False nails are like diseased they have like a chemical in them which causes a sort of fungus to grow underneath your real nail and eventually causes your nails to fall out.”She was hoping this would make her move her hand away. It did, and she started to caress it. Lydia felt she was on a roll, she couldn‘t stop, “Oh and I’m guessing because you didn’t know that then you probably won’t know about make-up.” You could see the horror in Jade’s face. “Make-up?” “Yeah, after a while make-up seeps into your pores and then into your blood stream and eventually will kill you but that takes a very long time before that you would just get a severe, contagious skin rash. So if I were you I would lay off the foundation, powder, blusher and whatever else you slap on there. Oh! And eye make-up, like shadow, liner and mascara that causes blindness.” The looks on their faces were priceless. Lydia only wished she had a camera. They were falling for it. “Ok, all we wanted to do was to invite you into my, I mean our group, and you tell us these, these horror stories!” Jade hissed. “Trust me I wouldn’t want to be in your ‘group’ in a million years, you girls aren’t my type, you’re too...fake for my liking! Oh and another thing, extensions, make your hair fall out, ah well pain is beauty but I guess for you it’s just pain.” Lydia walked away, she was thrilled, she always wanted to say something like that to the girls at her old school but had never had the courage. She decided that the canteen was probably not the best place to be in at that time so she started heading for her locker. On her way she had to walk past a group of five girls. One of them had neck length, fiery red hair and bright blue eyes. The girl next to her was very slim and had blond hair which just went past her shoulders. Opposite her, were twins, from a distance you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between them but close up one of them had a fuller face and the other, well didn’t but they had long, curly, blondish, brownish hair. The last girl had very short dark hair and had really long eyelashes. They all looked really happy but it looked like they needed one more. I mean who likes odd numbers anyway?“Excuse me, err, Laura?” Lydia turned around only just hearing the ‘L’. “Are you speaking to me?” all the girls smiled, it was nice like their smiles were real not like Jade and her friends. “Yeah, sorry your name’s not Laura is it? I knew it began with ‘L’, anyway sorry, I’m Maria, come and sit down.”Maria was the blond girl; she was surrounded by seven orange juice cartons. She saw Lydia staring at them and Maria went red in the face.“Yeah, you’ll notice that about her, she loves orange juice. I’m Jane, nice to meet you.” Jane had the really long eyelashes. Lydia spent all of break with the girls, she learned a lot from just ten minutes. The twins were Alice and Amanda, Alice is the older twin by three seconds, this according to her is very important, as it explains how she is smarter than Amanda however Amanda thinks that them three seconds explain Alice’s ugliness (neither of them are ugly, they are both very pretty). Finally Harriet was the red head, she doesn’t really like her friends calling her Harriet so they have to call her Harry. Lydia had biology next and Alice told her that she was in the same class as Amanda and herself. The girls lead her to class. They walked in and sat at the table nearest the door. Already seated were a boy and a girl. Alice plonked Lydia down in the seat opposite the boy, Alice and Amanda sat on the seat either side of Lydia. “Lydia this is Herb and Janice. Herb, Janice, this is Lydia, we own her” Amanda said to the them. Lydia wanted to laugh but she wasn’t sure if Amanda was joking. “I’m not Herb I’m Henry, and she is joking, of course she doesn’t own you, she does that a lot, she thinks she’s funny.” The lesson continued and Lydia couldn’t help but feel that all eyes were on her. She leaned over to Amanda and asked her why everyone was staring at her, she thought she knew but she wouldn’t have been so rude and stare at the new kid. “Well, I hate to tell you this but…erm…you’re sitting in Bob’s seat” she whispered. “Bob?” Lydia was confused now, No one had mentioned a Bob before. “Yeah, he sat there before he…died. It was in this class that he…you know… passed on to the other side. His accident was hard for us all to all take, it was so sudden.” “Amanda!” Alice, Henry and Janice all hissed. “She does it all the time! Bob never existed, she just thought it was funny to make someone up and give them a really sad story. Do you want to know how Bob died? Apparently he stood up to get a test tube for Queen Amanda but he wet himself and died. That basically sums up Amanda. Stupid stories and jokes” Janice explained. Now Lydia was very confused, “Does she go to Special Ed.?” She asked Alice. “Special Ed.? Oh do you mean SFL?” “Err I think so, like, you know where people with like learning difficulties go to.” Henry, Alice and Janice started laughing causing the teacher to give them a warning. “What’s so funny?” Lydia asked. “Amanda needs to go to SFL but they won’t except her!” Lydia understood now, they were just joking. She laughed along and her first biology lesson flew by. She always hated biology but now se had a reason to like it. She could have fun. The teacher was really laid back as well, she was really tall with reddish brown hair, Henry had told Lydia that she was going out with a teacher who teaches Chemistry (and he was also very tall). Her next lesson was R.M.E. When she walked in, she didn’t recognize anyone, she saw a table at the back that was empty so she started to head over there but the teacher told her to sit at a table on the other side of the room, on which three girls were already there. They seemed nice, they weren’t really bothered about her sitting there really. Half way through the lesson the girl opposite her, Naomi, pointed out that Lydia was wearing a lovely necklace. It was in the shape of an ’L’ and had a blue/green stone on it. She explained to them that it was from her best friend Evangeline, who was all the way in New Zealand. Lydia and Evangeline had been friends ever since they were little. They were neighbours back in England and they did everything thing together. They occasionally had their fall outs but they were over stupid little things like who has the best doll and the best pets. Lydia and Evangeline both believe that they are not complete without each other. When Evangeline moved away, Lydia was heartbroken, she would have no one to hang out with. Evangeline was more popular, she had other friends unlike Lydia. So when she left Lydia knew she would have no one, she wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with Evangeline’s friends, they were to ’blah’! Lydia and Evangeline keep in touch all the time, through Bebo, Facebook, by letters and occasionally by phone. Lydia felt a bit upset telling the girls about Evangeline, not that she told them but that she missed her so much. It was lunch time and Lydia had no idea where she would go, she didn’t know where Jane, Harry, Maria, Alice and Amanda normally meet up. She left her classroom and heard Harry call her name. she was in the class at the end of the corridor. “Hey, I just had Tutor, how was R.M.E? Who do sit with? Do you have money to go to Tesco?”“Ok, well you ask a lot of questions don’t you? It was ok, we were doing Globalization, and I’ve done that in my old school, so it should be a breeze. I sit with Naomi, Sasha and err I’ve forgotten her name…oh Adele. I do have some money but it’s on my canteen card, so I don’t think I will be going to Tesco” “Oh good! My moneys on my card as well, I guess you’re stuck with me.” Lydia was glad, she hadn’t really spoken to Harry yet, at break it was mainly Maria and Amanda. Harry and Lydia sat in the same place they sat at, at break . They both got their meals and started talking. Harry asked about her old friends back in England. Lydia just told her that Evangeline was really her only friend and that she didn’t really talk to anyone else. After talking about Lydia, they moved onto Harry. Harry was the oldest with a younger sister and brother. They lived close to the school, and close to Lydia for that matter. Harry took part in many dance classes, Irish, disco and ballet. The one thing that made Lydia like her even more was the fact that she was a dedicated Christian. She goes with her family to church every Sunday. They pray before they go to bed and before meal. They also go on trips to different countries to do projects with the church. Lydia admired Harry, the fact that a family can stay strong and stick to their believes, especially in the type of world today. They were soon joined by the rest of the girls. “So Lydia, you haven’t really told us about your new house. Is it bigger than your old one? Even though we’ve never seen your old house so we won’t know whether or not to believe you, but I’m sure we will, I mean you don’t look like the lying type. Oh and what are your parents like? Are they strict? Oh I bet they’re the nicest people ever! Go on tell us about them?” Jane asked, seeming a little out of breath. “Ok, well my mum bought the new theatre up town, err Limelight, and my dad works in some sort of organisation, he‘s quite high up in the business ladder. Our house is much bigger than our old one, it’s on that private estate just right of Rose Hill. There are still loads of boxes all over the place, and we have to help paint all the rooms before we move furniture in, so we’re sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor at the moment.” All the girls looked in amazement. “That means you live on Stellar Avenue? Are you serious? They’re the new posh houses aren’t they, just in front of us?” Alice asked “Yeah we’re on Rose Hill, that’s just behind your street, but I never knew it was a private estate.” said Amanda. The girls listened on in awe surprised of how Lydia wasn’t as shocked as them for living on a ‘posh’ estate. Lydia invited them round to her house after school, after all they all loved painting and Lydia’s room needed painting anyway, and an extra set of hands always helps. Lydia had had a great first day and couldn’t believe that she had made friends already, and great friends as well, who were all uniquely different, and who all had an amazing character. She knew her friendships with them would last for a lifetime.

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